Archeological Investigations at Buzzard Roost 9TR41, 9TR54, and 9TR106, Taylor County, Georgia

Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. conducted archeological data recovery excavations on two sites related to the historic Creek town of Buzzard Roost during two sessions in 1996 and 1998. The project area is located in Taylor County, Georgia, on the western side of the Flint River. Data recovery was necessitated by plans of the Georgia Department of Transportation to widen a portion of Highway 19. Machine-excavated blocks were opened during 1996 on sites 9TR41 and 9TR54. Those excavations produced postmold patterns associated with Creek domestic structures on 9TR41. Site 9TR54 was found to contain substantially more and larger features that were contemporaneous with the occupation on 9TR41. The final stage, conducted in 1998, consisted of archeological monitoring of a 600 m segment of the new highway corridor which extended through sites 9TR54 and 9TR41 to the banks of the Flint River. This report is a Section 106 document and was required per signed Memorandum of Agreement. The excavations encountered numerous features associated with two historic Creek household compounds. Because of project boundary limitations relating to the width of the highway corridor, only part of each compound was exposed. However, the feature information is sufficient to define a traditional household compound pattern in which structures encircle an open courtyard area. The excavations are one of the first opportunities to investigate Creek households and represent the first large scale excavation relating to the period on the Flint River. Archival investigations confirm a period of occupation from ca 1770 to 1788. The sites are part of the Kasihta satellite town referred to by Benjamin Hawkins as "Salenojuh" and "Buzzard Roost or Buzzard's Roost" by others. The material remains from such a tightly dated context provide extremely good examples of the material culture of the middle portion of the Lawson Field phase.